The media loves story lines. You give them a situation where a team goes into the tourney unbeaten and number one and these grown men, these media professionals, with all their experience and understanding, become reduced to little children on easter morning, scrambling down the stairs to check their baskets. Unbeatable Kentucky? Well now, after listening to these so-called experts, I admit it was tempted to think that a few weeks ago, just like its tempting to believe in Santa Claus and Bigfoot, but in the end is any college team ever unbeatable? Perhaps, but this wasn't one of them.
In fact, in this case its inexcusable. While this Kentucky team had the size, talent, and depth, there were legitimate areas you could point to and say, hey, wait a minute, let's see how they do before we crown them de facto champs. Silly, but let's look at how they did during the regular season against teams that made it to the Elite 8..
Notre Dame 4-1
Louisville 0-3
Duke 3-2
Michigan State 0-4
Wisconsin 2-1
Gonzaga 0-1
Arizona 1-0
KENTUCKY 1-0
Who exactly did they manhandle during the regular season?
They made this historic run and the toughest games they played during the regular season were against a vastly over-rated Kansas Jayhawk team and a Louisville squad that Pitino even admits wasn't his strongest group. They played one team total that was even in the elite 8 and, frankly, Louisville didn't even deserve to be there.
Furthermore, they had played two games to over time during the regular season. Seriously, for the media to dub someone to be unbeatable shouldn't there be a history of not having come close to losing a game? Those squeakers were to unranked Mississippi State and unranked Texas A&M for that matter.
Finally, and this is the point that kills me, they VERY nearly lost to Notre Dame in the Elite 8 - which is akin to the real world exposing Calaperi's squad as being seriously at risk for losing in the tournament. This was the Emperor Has No Clothes On moment, and despite this fact, the talking heads at ESPN, caught up in their lust to have "Unbeatable" Kentucky finish a perfect season, and lost in the dream rematch against Wisconsin, failed to remove their blue goggles and give us a honest approximation of the challenge the Wildcats faced with their match ups against a very talented and battle tested Badger team. No, the Notre Dame game SHOULD have been the, wait a minute fellas "all we knew about this Wildcat team is smoke and mirrors" moment - Kentucky is vulnerable. And in fact, had we been given a legitimate analysis of the matchup in the final four, many would have seen this coming. Instead, we were fed the corporate bull.
ESPN spent more time rolling out their horrid re-format of their website then it did giving us legitimate analysis of the Kentucky basketball team AND its matchup against a superior Wisconsin team. But then again, its ESPN. What did you expect?
This post was edited on 4/5 9:23 AM by hunchback_of_nd
This post was edited on 4/5 9:28 AM by hunchback_of_nd
In fact, in this case its inexcusable. While this Kentucky team had the size, talent, and depth, there were legitimate areas you could point to and say, hey, wait a minute, let's see how they do before we crown them de facto champs. Silly, but let's look at how they did during the regular season against teams that made it to the Elite 8..
Notre Dame 4-1
Louisville 0-3
Duke 3-2
Michigan State 0-4
Wisconsin 2-1
Gonzaga 0-1
Arizona 1-0
KENTUCKY 1-0
Who exactly did they manhandle during the regular season?
They made this historic run and the toughest games they played during the regular season were against a vastly over-rated Kansas Jayhawk team and a Louisville squad that Pitino even admits wasn't his strongest group. They played one team total that was even in the elite 8 and, frankly, Louisville didn't even deserve to be there.
Furthermore, they had played two games to over time during the regular season. Seriously, for the media to dub someone to be unbeatable shouldn't there be a history of not having come close to losing a game? Those squeakers were to unranked Mississippi State and unranked Texas A&M for that matter.
Finally, and this is the point that kills me, they VERY nearly lost to Notre Dame in the Elite 8 - which is akin to the real world exposing Calaperi's squad as being seriously at risk for losing in the tournament. This was the Emperor Has No Clothes On moment, and despite this fact, the talking heads at ESPN, caught up in their lust to have "Unbeatable" Kentucky finish a perfect season, and lost in the dream rematch against Wisconsin, failed to remove their blue goggles and give us a honest approximation of the challenge the Wildcats faced with their match ups against a very talented and battle tested Badger team. No, the Notre Dame game SHOULD have been the, wait a minute fellas "all we knew about this Wildcat team is smoke and mirrors" moment - Kentucky is vulnerable. And in fact, had we been given a legitimate analysis of the matchup in the final four, many would have seen this coming. Instead, we were fed the corporate bull.
ESPN spent more time rolling out their horrid re-format of their website then it did giving us legitimate analysis of the Kentucky basketball team AND its matchup against a superior Wisconsin team. But then again, its ESPN. What did you expect?
This post was edited on 4/5 9:23 AM by hunchback_of_nd
This post was edited on 4/5 9:28 AM by hunchback_of_nd
